ghost of miles

C'mon, you guys, smoke some crack... all the other kids are doin' it!

Some new stuff in clearance, including CANNONBALL AND THE POLL WINNERS, Dave Douglas' A THOUSAND EVENINGS ($1.99) and Paul Desmond's PAUL DESMOND QUARTET LIVE ($3.99).

I've been meaning to pick up the Stan Getz album of Bacharach tunes from BMG. (WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is the title, I think.) Autumn Leaves and On Green Dolphin Street are standards that I, too, don't really tire of... same for a couple of Hoagy tunes, Skylark and The Nearness of You (Mehldau does a nice version on his new record).

I heard a story about it on NPR recently, but still haven't heard the actual boot. Sounds interesting, though.

We've had a number of threads before, here & there, along the lines of, "What standard do you not want to hear for another five years?" My question today is, "What standard do you not get sick of--what standard do you like hearing frequently?" If any? For me, "Yesterdays" seems to bear the test of repeated interpretation...

If you're counting selects, the Curtis Amy & Duke Pearson. Last big set purchased was the Eldridge.

Andrew Hill in the summer of 1995... and what a glorious summer it was!

Following on Larry's suggestion, I'd also recommend Robbie Lieberman's MY SONG IS MY WEAPON (more info here) and the Bear Family box SONGS FOR POLITICAL ACTION, although it costs a pretty penny. The hardbound book that comes with it deals extensively with the folk/left alliance from 1930-1950 (the box-set also has some of the music Josh White recorded around the time of his Cafe Society stay, as well as the complete recordings of the Almanac Singers, the Guthrie/Seeger folkie "supergroup", as it were). This biography of Folkways founder Moe Asch, Making People's Music, also contains interesting stories & background on the subject. Asch did have some involvement with recording jazz artists in the 1940s.

Pretty good. I don't do as much over there, now that I'm at WFIU so much, but WFHB has added the BBC in the morning and local news in the evening. Ryan Bruce, the GM, is a real dynamo and has brought the station a long ways. Let me know what you think of that Stowe piece.

Don Redman, SHAKIN' THE AFRICAN Brad Mehldau, ANYTHING GOES Benny Carter, SAX A LA CARTER Claude Thornhill, BUSTER'S LAST STAND Stan Getz, CAPTAIN MARVEL Modern Jazz Quartet, COMP. PRESTIGE & PABLO

Damn, I'm gettin' old... I remember when "The Stand" came out. C'mon down, and meet your maker... etc. Omagod, it's so 1983! B) Pretty interesting story, Berigan. I'm always intrigued by established artists and authors who put out product under another name... This item really shows the prejudice of the music-biz powers-that-be.

Eric, That Journal article is the David Stowe one to which I was referring earlier. Too bad they don't have a link to it; again, if you'd like to read it, I could mail you a copy. (That magazine is actually published right here in Bloomington.) Thought I should also mention a good anthology edited by Krin Gabbard: JAZZ AMONG THE DISCOURSES. In that book you might enjoy, in particular, Bernard Gendron's "'Moldy Figs' and Modernists: Jazz at War 1942-1946" and Eric Lott's "Double V, Double Time: Bebop's Politics of Style."

Here's the thread on Duke's JumpForJoy 1941 civil-rights musical, about which I just did a one-hour radio program. The program should be archived online early next week--I'll post an update when it is available for listening.

That's right, Lon, I have that book, and I forgot that Gabler's interview is in there. Returning to the issues of Cafe Society and money, one of the reasons Barney Josephson had to shut it down in 1947 was the FBI's hounding of him... He was accused of getting money from CPUSA (the American Communist party) to finance it. Again, Chris may have some interesting insights/corrections/edifications to offer here.

Due out in September: StarWarsDVD

OH!!! OH!!!!! MISTAH KOTT-AIR!!!!!!!! I'll have to read that section, Eric, but I'm fascinated by that very topic. I haven't read John Hammond's autobiography ON RECORD (and Chris & others may have some valid criticisms to make of it), but certainly Hammond was heavily involved in that of which you speak. David Stowe's SWING CHANGES has some valuable insights to offer (and Stowe has written a wonderful essay about Cafe Society as a gathering point for artist-leftists in the late 30's/early 40's; unfortunately it's not on the web, but I have a copy of it and could mail it to you), and Michael Denning's THE CULTURAL FRONT talks extensively of the connections between jazz and left politics in the 1930s and early 1940s. I don't have the Mosaic Commodore sets, but don't they contain lengthy interviews with Milt Gabler? Perhaps there he discusses the left/jazz alignment of that time... also, the From Spirituals to Swing 3-CD Vanguard box is a real treasure trove, if you don't already have it... It reproduces the original 1938 program, replete with ads for socialist bookstores, Spanish Civil War benefits, etc. I realize I may be ranging farther afield here than the subject of your original inquiry... in any case, I'll try to post more books/essays as they come to me, but those are some of the sources that first come to mind.

What do fellow Organissimos think of this one? There's a used copy at a local shop; duets with Don Cherry, Hampton Hawes, Archie Shepp, and Ornette (on trumpet). Worth $8.50?

Did find this old Organissimo discussion: CookBlueNote

Eric, I think there was quite a lengthy discussion about this on the old Blue Note Bulletin Board, but I didn't save the thread. Maybe somebody else can post it...

A friend of mine was telling me this morning about a forthcoming Hoagy Carmichael JSP box, and I mentioned the Berigan set and our suspicions to him... He says he's heard that the owner of JSP is so angry about being ripped off himself (by Jazz Factory, Definitive, etc.) that he's just basically said, "Screw it." Sad if true.

Braxton, baby, Braxton!

I'm curious, too... is that "12 extra tracks" a double-CD set with an added DVD, or are the 12 bonus cuts all on the DVD only?

I was never too keen on this one. I guess it was supposed to represent Bud's debilitating mental state, but...

I'll definitely be going for the Carter tomorrow--sounds like a great date.

In other baseball news--this from liberal blogger Daily Kos (but it's not a political post!): Yet another reason why I love this game!